You Will Make Money in Your Sleep

by Emily White (Scribner; $25)

Dana Giacchetto, a young rocker turned investment banker, became a quintessential figure of the late nineties, managing investments for Leonardo DiCaprio, Phish, and other glitterati and attracting a large show-business and fashion clientele. But when Giacchetto’s high profile triggered an S.E.C. investigation, it emerged that the four hundred million he claimed to be managing was grossly exaggerated, and that much of his star clients’ returns were really just deposits redistributed from other accounts. White and her husband knew Giacchetto from the beginning and considered him a friend, though they later discovered that they had lost a substantial sum. This personal connection is the book’s strength and its weakness. White’s memories of nineties excess and her close-up observation of Giacchetto are compelling, but her grasp of the New York-Hollywood nexus in which he operated lacks investigative rigor. ♦